Session 2.11
Journey To The West Temple Part II: Cursed Rodeo Carric, Indigo, Gramarsh, Root, Ulrich Early October Kamara lent a strider each to Gramarsh, Root, and Ulrich. Indy and Carric have mounts. Day 1 * Bridges incomplete, so we have to ford river in the magic boat! * Halfway between Hardholme and portal, Carric plants a bean given to him by Indigo! * A STONE statue of Carric pops up! “Everyone, kill Carric!” The statue seems to be of the same sort as Rockador. Carric dubbed the statue Darric. * We arrive in Viven that night Day 2 * In the morning, we go see Dopdot the Green Hyla Priest. * For 500 gold, Ulrich wants to break the curse on his sword. * For 500 gold, Root wants to learn magic. * Begben denies both Ulrich and Root. Ulrich pays another 500 gold. In the hope that Begben would try again. * Carric mentions to Ulrich that Ander could possibly make a good music teacher at the Academy. * We go back through the Viven portal near the West Temple. * We head straight toward the temple. Everyone has climbing gear. * We set up base camp at the bottom of the mountain. Day 3 * Everyone slept well. Standard swampy bio-illuminescant mushrooms and moss drape the landscape to create a dreamlike effect. * Everyone scales the fuck out of the mountain. Never before has there been a better climb! * We approach the Temple of the West Mount. It is dilapidated. Crumbling. * Ulrich lights the four braziers in the corners. A stairwell opens in the middle of the room. * The party goes downstairs and we find two doors. Blue sphere and yellow triangle keyholes. We have the blue sphere key. * Indy hands Ulrich the blue sphere and Ulrich puts the blue sphere in the blue sphere hole. * The door opens. * The hall is in poor repair. The Western wall is in better shape than the others. There is a door with the wolf-dragon on it. * We hear panicked banging at the door. Something is getting killed. We hear screaming in Abyssal. * Root opens the door and a flood of Nartox come through the door. Running right by us without pause. * Through the door is a circular room. There is a raging bull creature in the center of room. A Nartox is impaled on one of its horns. It’s fucking them up. Carric puts on invisibility cloak. * One dozen frantic nartox running around. The bull takes s second to realize we are there. * Battle! * Ulrich, Carric, and Gramarsh get out of the way. * Indy loses 33 health and goes down from the bull charge. * Root takes 33 damage and falls down. Bull puts its foot on Root’s chest. * Root struggles and gets up and pulls Indy out of the way. Root stabilizes Indy to 0 health. * Ulrich misses 4 times and takes 16 damage from his own cursed sword. Appropriate. * The Nartox finish running out of the room and close the door behind them. * The bull snorts out green gas. Ulrich and Indy start petrifying into stone. * Carric heals Indy to the point of consciousness. Indy now has 16 health. * Root drinks a health potion. On the plus side, he has almost full health. On the flip side, he starts to petrify into stone. * Ulrich is turning to stone. Heals for 9. He shakes the petrification off with a saving throw at the end of his turn to stop petrifying into stone. * Gramarsh does 15 damage to the bull. * It sounds like the Nartox are reinforcing the other side of the door to keep it closed. * Indy casts Misty Step to get away from bull. Then he casts Ray of Imfeeblement. Bull now has a reduced attack. * One of the two doors on the far side of the room is blocked. * One is available. * Carric inspires Root. Throws dagger but misses and instead throws it straight into the ground in front of him. * The bull hits Gramarsh for 20 damage and Ulrich for 11 damage. * Root hits the bull for 24 damage. Root stops petrifying. * Ulrich hits the bull with two swipes for 14 damage. * Gramarsh misses twice. Starts to petrify. * Indy decides that we need to buy some time so he uses Wall of Ice. 32 damage. The bull is trapped inside of a dome of ice. * Carric holds on his turn to cast wall of thorns in between himself and the bull once everyone makes it to where he is standing. * The bull smashes the dome but does not break it. * Root picks up the petrifying Gramarsh and moves him to safety. * Root casts Shield of Faith as bonus action on Ulrich, Gramarsh, and Root.+2AC to all three. * Ulrich runs towards Carric and everyone else. Ulrich heals Indy for 5. * Carric finally casts Wall of Thorns between the bull and everyone else. * Gramarsh gets rid of petrification. * Indy heals from a scroll in the Bag of Holding. * Carric assumes dodging position to gain an advantage on the bull. * Bull breaks through and runs through wall of thorns with critical miss. Bull takes 35 damage. * Bull charges Gramarsh. He is knocked prone and takes 7 damage. The bull stomps on Gramarsh. Gramarsh is at 13 health. * Root misses his attack. * Ulrich does 17 damage. * Gramarsh deals 56 damage and takes the bull down. * Group takes a breather for 1 hour. * We awake. Gramarsh rolls nat 20 and busts down one of the two available doors. It is the leftmost door when entering the room from outside. * We find ourselves in a room. The chamber has been closed for ages. There is dust everywhere. Also there is a pile of bones on the north wall. There are three alcoves along the eastern wall. * Each alcove has a stone pedestal and a crystal globe. The globe in the center glows. Faint tinkling notes issue from it. * Gramarsh, Root, and Ulrich are charmed. They lose control of their bodies. The three turn around and zombify. They start shuffling out of the room. * Carric breaks the central globe and the music stops. Maybe placing the orb in the bag of holding would have stopped the effect of the spell. * The party regains control of their bodies and go to the second door. Indy opens the door! * There is a corridor. Stale air fills our nostrils. There is another closed door on the other end. We search for traps. Nothing. * Ulrich casually steps forward while whistling. A true spring in his step. A trap rapidly fires arrows at him. He is at 3 health. He retreats and heals. * Root crosses the arrow trap using his shield. He then turns and throws it to Gramarsh. He holds up the shield to block the arrows as everyone crosses behind him. * We enter a massive room. * There is a violet marble floor, cracked and broken. We can see stone underneath. * At the end is a giant sarcophagus, empty pedestals dot the room. * We rest with shifts. Long rest. * Indy puts his orb on a nearby pedestal. It does nothing. * We light braziers and nothing happens. It is obvious that no one has been here recently since it is extremely dusty. * Gramarsh opens up the coffin! An Anubis dog-like creature grabs Gramarsh. * Gramarsh takes 12 damage. * Carric hits the mummy with psychic blades for 18 damage. * Root does 18 damage and takes a bloody arm off. * The mummy is on fire from Root’s attack. * Ulrich does 37 damage and takes the other arm off. * Gramarsh does 25 damage. He chops its bloody head off. * But the body still alive! * Indy hits it with a chaos bolt. The body dies slowly, anticlimactically. * But then the head and arms each start to regrow whole bodies! Slowly though. * Think deadpool. * The head attacks Gramarsh. * An arm attacks Ulrich, but deals no damage. * Carric hit an arm with his tentacle rod. It deals 4 damage. Carric is officially more confused than normal. Carric pulls the head off Gramarsh. * Root hits the head for enough damage to make it explode in a fiery mess. * Gramarsh smashes an arm on the ground. It dies. Ulrich burns other arm with a torch. * We find a yellow triangle in the sarcophagus! * We leave the temple. Since the exit is barricaded, Gramarsh has to smash the door open. * We Tarintino-esque smash our way through 30 nartox in a glorious montage. * We exit to our mounts and return home. * And scene. * Fun Fact: Ulrich found a Curse Breaking Scroll and broke the curse on his sword. Thanks a lot Dopdot.